Still, I would not like to restrict the new populism in such a radically simplistic way because the plain truth is that the term populism has evolved into an elastic, and thus largely meaningless, term if everyone is a populist, what, pray tell, does the term mean, and how does it help us to distinguish one candidate from another? The “suits,” then and now, had very different wardrobe closets. He once quipped that what the times changed was what one wore: tie-dyes, bell-bottoms, and granny glasses. That’s a tough order for the blue-blazer-and-gray-slacks-bedecked John Kerry to match.Īt this point I can imagine some political science types muttering, “Is this what the new populism comes to? Apparel?” Possibly, at least if one takes a countercultural icon like Bob Dylan seriously.
Better yet, Bush likes country music, often slips into cowboy boots, and can hang out at NASCAR races without looking out of place.
Bush as a man who shares the values of ordinary folk and can best protect them from terrorism. Less a sharply defined political movement, as was the Populist Movement of the 1890s, small-p populism is a sensibility, one that, amazingly enough, now gets equal time on both sides of the aisle: Democrats appeal to voters with promises that they will defend average people from the “special interests” and the greed of corporate America, even though, in the new “investor class,” about half of all households own stock and Republicans proudly portray George W. Huey Long, the controversial senator from Louisiana, remains the poster child for small-p populism. American Politics and the New Populism Every man a king, every man a king,
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